Muskegon’s downtown revitalization attracts national attention

Renaissance Zones, SmartZones, and other tax incentives are helping the formerly industrial-dependent Muskegon recreate itself as a thriving, ‘green’ oriented urban center. Developers, as well as the federal and state governments, are investing multi-millions, and it seems to be just the beginning.

According to excerpts from the story:

MUSKEGON, Mich. — In economic development, this city’s downtown is the emergency room.

Federal, state and local governments have launched an intensive intervention to revive a dying industrial city battered for decades by a changing economy and global competition.

Muskegon’s downtown has vacant blocks with parking lots and no buildings. It has abandoned factories riddled with broken windows. It has competition from big-box stores on the outskirts of town.

Muskegon also has a core of local officials and business people who have refused to give up. The city, the Chamber of Commerce and other groups have secured millions of dollars in tax breaks, grants and subsidies that federal, state and local governments have to offer.

Read the complete story here.